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I can’t remember a time when everything exploded so spectacularly on a Friday evening. Like, important news stories and interesting celebrity stories sometimes break on a Friday, but what happened yesterday was something else entirely. Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold – who has been doing amazing reporting on Donald Trump’s sham foundation – broke the story and scooped everyone, including Access Hollywood, and it was Access Hollywood’s tape! The basic story is that in 2005, Donald Trump took a ride in Access Hollywood’s bus with Billy Bush. They were filming a bit ahead of Trump’s cameo appearance on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. It seems that Bush and Trump either forgot they were mic’d or they didn’t care, but their conversation in the bus was recorded and was released yesterday evening. The video is below. NSFW for language. Also: trigger warning.

At the beginning, the “her” Trump is referring to is Nancy O’Dell, who was married at the time. He says:

“I moved on her actually. You know she was down in Palm Beach, I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it…I did try and f–k her, she was married… Nancy, no this was, and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I took her out, furniture, I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there — and she was married. And all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony t-ts, she’s totally changed her look.”

Keep in mind that not only was O’Dell married, but Donald had just married Melania as well, and many believe this was recorded when Melania was pregnant with Barron. Also keep in mind that Trump tried to fire O’Dell two years later because A) she was pregnant and B) she did not succumb to his advances. After this part about Nancy O’Dell, both Bush and Trump see Days star Arianne Zucker, who is waiting to escort Trump to the set. This is where it goes from disgusting to absolutely deplorable.

Bush: “Your girl’s hot as s—, in the purple.”
Trump: “Whoa!” [laughing] “Whoa! I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Unidentified voice, possibly Bush: “Whatever you want.”
Trump: “Grab them by the p-ssy. You can do anything.”

I actually gasped when I first saw this. Deplorable doesn’t even cover it. He’s making an admission of sexual assault. And what comes after this, with Billy Bush basically ordering Arianne Zucker to hug Trump after their conversation is just… disgusting. Appalling. This is the video evidence that rape culture exists.

Trump’s first defense was to offer a non-apology and blame Bill Clinton, because of course. Trump issued a statement saying: “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.” Locker room banter = admitting to sexually assaulting women. Then when so many Republicans were turning on him last night, Trump released this video:

Here is my statement. pic.twitter.com/WAZiGoQqMQ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2016

In the wake of all of this, a million things have happened. Billy Bush apologized (but he’ll likely keep his job with NBC). Paul Ryan disinvited Trump from a rally today in Wisconsin. Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell and more issued statements about how reprehensible these comments are, because I guess no one in the GOP had an issue with what Donald Trump has been saying for YEARS before now? Online and on TV, we’re finally having a national conversation about rape culture. I also think there’s a good chance that Trump will pull out of tomorrow’s debate, but as of right now, he’s still in.

There have actually been meetings between GOP higher-ups, allegedly about whether there’s some way to pull Trump from the ticket or “force” him to resign as the nominee or something. For now, he’s sticking with it. He told the WSJ just hours ago that there’s “zero chance I’ll quit…I never, ever give up.” He also disputes the widespread reports that staffers on his campaign are leaving and that his campaign is in free-fall: “The support I’m getting is unbelievable, because Hillary Clinton is a horribly flawed candidate.” When asked specifically about his admission of sexually assaulting women because he’s famous, he said: “People get it. They get life.” This WSJ piece is worth a read because… he’s not sorry at all.

Early look at tomorrow’s front page
What Trump said he liked to do to attractive women: “GRAB THEM BY THE P—Y” https://t.co/HPZdvyep1p pic.twitter.com/cYd9IRB4sP

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) October 7, 2016

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Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.